Blood pressure can be measured in a number of ways, such as invasive pressure sensor, oscillometric, auscultatory and tonometric. These methods will inevitably affect the state of the patient. It has been reported that a considerable number of measurements performed at the office of a medical doctor or at a hospital are affected by the situation and may be quite erroneous compared to what would have been measured if the patient had not been affected by the medical environment. The variations of the blood pressure in relation to the activity of the patient may provide very important information in relation to diagnosis. Existing methods do not provide non-interfering recording of blood pressure during sleep or during physical activity. Existing systems with a minimum interference do require either electrical wired power connection or an internal battery. These facts impose limitations on the applicability of the system and may have undesirable environmental effects.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,558,335, a wrist-mounted device is disclosed. The device is based on a conventional MEMS pressure sensor, and a local power supply in the form of a battery is required.